A teenage girl who was left paralysed when she fell from a van at 60mph while being kidnapped by her boyfriend has finally hugged her mum again for the first time. Nikki Lynn has been hugging daughter Angel every day since she was injured - but had no response.
Now Nikki says that, two weeks ago, as she hugged her daughter Angel’s right arm reach around her back in return; her hand lightly pressed her back, then move to stroke her hair, reports The Mirror. Nikki, 47, said: "She just put her hand straight around my back and started tapping me,” recalls 47-year-old Nikki, exhausted and barely believing.
“She didn’t hug much before, she was a typical teenager, but she would give you a hug if you were upset. It’s very special to have that hug now.”
Angel Lynn was 19 when her boyfriend Chay Bowskill, 21, kidnapped her as she walked near her home in September 2020, grabbing her in a bear-like grip, forcing her into a van, then driving away with his friend, Rocco Sansome.
Angel holding a TV remote
Angel fell onto the A6 at 60mph. Bowskill says he is unsure if she fell or jumped. Angel has been unable to tell her story. She was so seriously injured her parents were told multiple times that she was going to die. She has been unable to speak, eat, or walk, since. She has barely responded to anything.
In January, Bowskill was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for kidnap, controlling and coercive behaviour and perverting the course of justice. Two weeks ago at the Court of Appeal, the sentence was increased to 12 years. Sansome was jailed for 21-months for his part in the kidnap, which he denied.
Angel is now making breakthroughs for the first time. Not only has she hugged her mother, but she has smiled, attempted to blow a kiss, waved, held a TV remote and written words in response to questions, all using her right hand - her left side is more severely impacted.
She has also started to make noises and he family hope one day Angel might be able to reveal what happened to her.
Angel was kidnapped by her abusive boyfriend (Image: Leicestershire Police / SWNS)
“A doctor once rang me and said, ‘Nikki, you will have to accept Angel isn’t going to pull through this’,” recalls the mum, who runs a cleaning company with her husband. “His exact words were ‘miracles do happen, but in Angel’s case there is not going to be a miracle’.
“But there has been a miracle. That hug was a miracle. She used to look straight through you, there was nothing in her eyes at all. She can now smile spontaneously.
“When she started making the sounds we gave her a pen and paper and said ‘Are you ok? Are you in pain?’ And she wrote ‘No’. Her brother asked her the other day what she wanted and she wrote ‘Chocolate’.
“She can give you a thumbs up for yes. She can now press her nurse’s button to wind them up, she gets that humour. She had a cheeky sense of humour. Bit by bit I feel we are starting to get her back.”
Angel before being attacked (Image: Leicestershire Police / SWNS)
Dad Paddy said: “She has blown me a kiss. She has put her hand to her mouth and holds it there for at least a minute, and then tries to blow. She does try. It means a lot.”
The progress coincided with stopping one medication, Baclofen, an antispasmodic. The family hopes that further reduction of medication for seizures may allow her to try to eat again. She is currently fed through a tube to her stomach.
Angel, 21, now lives in a 24-hour care home. She is at grave risk of pneumonia, and cannot lie flat. The family supply bedding and towels so the smell reminds her of home; they make sure she has familiar toiletries, Ted Baker body lotion, Angel perfume. They do her nails and hair.
Chay Bowskill was convicted of kidnap, coercive, controlling behaviour and perverting the course of justice (Image: PA)
Angel studied public services at college and had thought of working in forensic science. But she withdrew when she got together with Bowskill.
During the lockdowns she lived mainly with him. After the incident on September 17, Angel was airlifted to hospital and had emergency surgery for a bleed on the brain.
Debilitating seizures followed. Later, she contracted Covid-19 and nearly died again. “They let us sleep with her all week because they said she wouldn’t make it,” says Nikki.
She added: “She is locked in, but every time I see her I tell her ‘Don’t give up, keep trying, keep telling yourself you can do it’,” she says.
To help fundraise for Angel’s rehabilitation visit this website.
